View full sizeJohn McEnroe, holding up his first Grand Slam singles trophy, at the 1979 U.S. Open. A decade later, he was still trying to win his first Australian Open.The Associated Press

Few of the best players in the 1970s and '80s won the Australian Open. The tournament had slowly fallen in esteem in the '60s until it was a major in name only. By the disco era, the top men didn't bother going Down Under. The tournament was simply too far away, the grounds were poor and there was better money to be made in exhibitions.

This is one of the reasons that John McEnroe's stock has fallen in recent years when talk turns to the greatest players of all time. He won only seven major titles, in part because he didn't play at the Australian Open during his best days.

He only played in Melbourne five times, mostly in the second half of his career. By the time the tournament moved into a swanky new venue in 1988 and reinvented itself, McEnroe's glory days were over.

And yet his most infamous match occurred at the Australian Open: yes, we're talking about his infamous 1990
default, which ended perhaps his best chance to get one more major title before
the dying of the light.

The 30-year-old American had been playing great tennis coming into his fourth-round match with the Swedish grinder Mikail Pernfors. Many commentators were already picking McEnroe as the favorite to win the tournament.

But Pernfors wasn't going to just give the match to him. Mac breezed through the first set, but then Pernfors, the 1986 French Open finalist, buckled down. He scratched and clawed, forcing McEnroe into uncharacteristic errors. With a surprise break of serve late, Pernfors snatched the second set, 6-4. (You can watch the entire match at
Australian Open Vault.)

That's when everything went wrong for McEnroe. He became increasingly grumpy, snapping at the umpire, trying to intimidate the lines-callers. McEnroe won the third set but continued to spiral into mammoth temper
tantrums, ignoring the umpire's warnings and penalties. He finally let loose a series of curses at the umpire, and that was it: the disgusted official declared game, set and match for
Pernfors. Thus ended McEnroe's best chance ever to win the Australian Open. Watch McEnroe's self-immolation below: